Master and Apprentice

Today David Cameron showed all the cunning and opportunism that would have made his political mentor/nemesis proud. Writing in the Guardian, not his usual audience, Mr Cameron jumped on to the easiest of political bandwagons - reform of the political system.

In an article that conjures up vivid images of 1997, Mr Cameron calls for a radical transformation of Parliament, local government and the EU. And how is this to be done? By increasing transparency, using more referenda and empowering the electorate through redistribution of power to neighbourhoods and local government. Impressive rhetoric, especially for a Conservative leader, who until recently would have been committing political suicide even to mention the words "radical" and "reform" in the same sentence. But it has all been done before.

The Third Way and Tony Blair anyone?

Anthony Giddens, the foremost architect of New Labour's Third Way dream, outlines the six tenets of the Third Way:

• Reconstruction of Government (check)
  
• The cultivating of civil society (check)
  
• Reconstruction of the economy (check)
  
• Reform of the welfare state (check)
  
• Ecological modernization (check)
  
• Reform of the global system (check)
  

Amazing, it bears more than a passing similarity to a potential Conservative manifesto. No wonder many of the manufactures of the Third Way concept, such as Jack Straw, are falling over themselves to support David Cameron.

This sadly proves only one point; that the opposition before any election will provide the public with the aspirational dreams of a potential utopia, whilst the government must attempt to justify the current dystopia.